How happy are you by Novak Djokovic's defeat at the USO2021?

[Moxie]

Well, Roger Federer was close twice—lost the final to Nadal in Paris in 2006-07 but won all the rest. That was close.

That's really only close in retrospect, because you're talking about the near miss being 2 Majors before the finish. This argument came up when Novak lost in the final in 2015 at the French, and won the rest, but Serena went all the way to the SFs at the USO before she dropped the ball, and there was an argument over who had the better year. I said that Serena was closer, because she was literally 2 matches away. There's no telling what the pressure will do to you as it mounts across the calendar year, as we witnessed again with Novak this year. There's nothing to say that winning the French in either of those years for Roger, or the French in 2015 for Novak, would have guaranteed that the rest of their years would have turned out exactly, otherwise, the same, because the pressure would have been different, and, as we've seen, enormous.

 

[Fjaka2.0]

Well, Roger Federer was close twice—lost the final to Nadal in Paris in 2006-07 but won all the rest. That was close.

That is completely different.
He lost at the second slam and it was over , Novak went all the way until the F of the last slam, not really comparable.
No one managed to win the first 3 and reach F of the 4th.

 

[shawnbm]

I hear you both, but those two years were close, which the OP said no one was even close. That’s the point. Closer than Novak in 2011 or Rafa on 2010 or 2013. So Novak in 2015 is the only one in Open Era close to this apart from Federer those two years. That’s all.

 

[Moxie]

I hear you both, but those two years were close, which the OP said no one was even close. That’s the point. Closer than Novak in 2011 or Rafa on 2010 or 2013. So Novak in 2015 is the only one in Open Era close to this apart from Federer those two years. That’s all.

I didn't see where the OP said that, but if he discounted those 2 by Fed, then he discounted the 2015 by Novak, and, IMO, rightly, because they weren't close. Or only on paper. Fjaka above is right to say that when they lost the French, it was over. The dynamic of the pressure changes.